Posted on 05/29/2007 6:47:28 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The Memorial Day holiday means it's a day on the water with the family.
Chuck Singleton does what he can to makes sure his kids are safe out here. The concern is who else is out there.
"You don't know where they come from," said Singleton. "You know, they could load up with a bomb or whatever and come right out here."
With thousands of boats on the waterways, the worry is the recreational boat is now a Homeland Security threat.
"Just the sheer numbers and ability to hide among recreational traffic is something that makes it difficult for me to find the threat and address it," said Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
A simple boat could be used as a weapon.
"Just the fuel, this has 85 gallons in this boat and that's bomb itself," said Singleton.
The head of the U.S. Coast Guard is throwing around a couple of ideas on how to keep you safe.
One would require licenses for all boaters in all states.
The other would call for transponders on recreational boats so authorities can track their location.
"Anything to improve our coast and help everybody out, we need to do it. We just have to get control over this. I think it would be a good idea," said Singleton.
Those against the licensing or the use of transponders believe the Coast Guard needs to set up a small perimeter, a safety zone, in areas of concern, so small boats can't get into certain areas.
What part of the concept of ASYMMETRIC warfare don't you understand?
It took a special delivery system because the other side was shooting back!
BTW, the big secret was set the bomb off close to the base of the dam. This is a piece of cake when you can simply motor up to the face of the damn dam and scuttle your boat.
Heck, since you don't have to get the charge into a light enough package to airlift, you can "use enough dynamite, there Butch"...
What part of needlessly scaring the pants off the flock of sheep that see the government as a parent do you not understand? Contrary to Faux News and 24, Muslim fundamentalists are not out to steal boats and ram them into other boats. If they are, treat it like any other crime. However since they aren't I wouldn't put too much faith into it. Sheesh reading the 'news' lately is starting to read like World Nut Daily
BTW, I live 4 miles from a nuclear power plant. Situated on a large man made lake. And no I'm not concerned in the least
true but a small boat next to a large tanker at a fuel loading dock could be worse.
Yeah. Hilarious.
There is absolutely no way to protect yourself from the Islamic monsters except to catch them “personally” before they can get that far. You can build a wall around the whole of the USA. What’s the sense if they’re already here???
Transponders would work, but it’s simple to just turn it off. That wouldn’t work too well, unless they use solar power for it.”
Since the drug runners do alot of their movement of product in the middle of the night, solar power would be just wonderful.
This is just another bad idea cloaked inside the idea of “keeping you safe”.
Use your own brain and watch out for yourself. We don’t need another layer of bureacracy, IMO. Then they will have to hire lots of people to “patrol” and check for licenses.
But the greater threat is for a boat to be used as a means to transport a group of terrorists.”
Get a grip, people. I could transport about 20 people inside my 4 horse trailer!!! What’s next? Cameras there also???
New great idea.... How about a ‘luxury’ tax???? Great idea, proven to stop boating.”
When was the luxury tax on yachts and boats over a certain size?
It ground the entire industry to a complete halt.
Yes, I always thought the easiest way to destroy in this country would be fire. The US is covered with forest. Many areas have a heavy population surrounded by trees and brush. A couple guys could create a huge firestorm in populated areas with a couple lighters and a car on a dry, windy day.
We’re losing a lot of freedom through proposals like this and yet I don’t think they add to security significantly, if at all. I find it appalling that this kind of thing is even being proposed.””
All this kind of stuff being “proposed”.
What about building the fence on the southern border???
Quit messing around and get the job done....
And North Carolina has shipping in Wilmington. The Intercoastal Waterway runs all the way down my coast. And still the problem exists. 'Conservatives' would further limit freedoms to obtain a false sense of security. Or do you actually believe terrorists would go through the proper channels to obtain a boat? What next? Cars? Just let us know what you'll accept so we can fight it all off in one fell swoop
Actually, after all these years of running muddy water into it, Lake Mead is mostly mud. The sudden surge of what water is impounded would cause havoc downstream for awhile but the newly exposed soil would support quite a few farms until the dam could be repaired.
Sac, the “islamic monsters” are here and there are more of them coming, legally. They don’t need to sneak in across the border and in fact I suspect most don’t have the toughness or competence needed to do so.
As you point out, the only way to defeat terrorism is to put resources into, well, defeating terrorism. Border fences and restricting recreational boating and all that sort of things may or may not be desirable according to some people, but they’re not going to fight terrorism. In fact, I would expect them to divert resources from the kind of unglamourous law enforcement and intelligence work that’s been successful in combatting terrorists.
Most of the people involved in the Fort Dix plot were legal residents. Two of the illegals had been arrested numerous times. This indicates that, instead of building a fence, we should simply change our policy so that we do check the immigration status of people who are arrested and throw them out. That might have foiled this plot then and there. The fence wouldn’t have done a thing.
Unfortunately there are plenty of legal residents of our nation who have decided their Islamic identity is more important than their identity as Americans. Consider John Walker Lindt; he was not an illegal alien but he fought against us in the Afghan war. He surely could have participated in attacks within the US. The border fence does nothing to people like him.
So again, I’m all for more law enforcement resources being placed against terrorism. I’m all for more intelligence resources being placed against terrorism. I am against measures such as the border fence and this attack on recreational boating because I think they nibble at - literally - the periphery of the issue, while we need people to stab straight to the heart of it.
Rides The Miles, it’s interesting that you point this out. As you would know if you read my other posts, I am one of the very few Freepers who thinks illegal aliens are largely benign. I think the overwhelming majority of illegal aliens are harmless and just want to work. As a result, the border fence strikes me as a huge waste of time and resources.
I did think when I was writing my response to this question that my opposition to such measures pretty much followed from it. In this recreational boating proposal, we are talking about huge reductions in freedom for potential gains that are in my view entirely illusory. In the fence proposal, we are talking about spending billions of dollars on a measure that will only reduce terrorism in the most indirect possible way.
I know this response was against what many of you believe, but I hope it made you think, and was of interest because of that.
D
The terrorists have won.
And your 4 horse trailer could be packed with a couple of tons of explosives and driven right next to a building. Where as a boat, well, they don’t “go” on land very well. And most buildings are on land.
The overall point is well taken though. We can cripple ourselves and live in our bunker houses and not go out and live like with all of it’s risks .... or .... we can put a portion of our economy via the intelligence and police forces to go after the terrorists.
Play defense or play offense. I prefer to play offense.
Were you sleeping during the classroom or driving portion of drivers education or maybe both? Every state controls who can and can't drive. I took drivers ed. in Michigan during 1973, and the first sentence out of the instructor's mouth was about driving being a privilege not a right. Since then I have been licensed to drive in Indiana, Virgina and North Carolina, all of which stress the same point. Even Paris Hilton has learned the difference between rights and privileges recently. The original point I was making was that the authorities can stop any vehicle, board any boat or knock any plane from the air if they need to do it. We don't need any new laws giving them the authority to do the same.
BTW Willard, don't throw the term "clown" around until you take a good look at yourself.
Wrong. It took a special delivery system because of the minimum size of the bomb necessary to cause damage.
This is a piece of cake when you can simply motor up to the face of the damn dam and scuttle your boat.
Not that easy - I was at Hover dam last year and noticed that there were armed patrol craft making sure that no boats got too close.
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